The Snodgrass Family: July 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

Eliana's first ER visit

We are WAY behind in posting as this happened in April (the weekend before Easter, in fact). We were down at the beach at Discovery Park and were walking back to the car. For those of you who know the beach there, you have to have a parking permit and the cars are very infrequent. As we were loading up stuff, we set Eliana down next to our car. When we went to pick her up and put her in the car seat, she was really fussy; more fussy than usual. We thought, "it's almost nap time, she's tired." Well, as we drove through the park and on the way home, her cry was not a tired cry, but a pain cry. We couldn't figure it out. We checked to see if the straps were too tight on her car seat, but that wasn't it. As we got her ready for her nap, I thought we should wash her hands since she was down at the beach. When I reached down for her hands, I saw blisters on two fingers from her fingertip to her middle knuckle. I started to get scared since she was really crying now. Nate band-aided her fingers after putting some Neosporin on and I rocked her to sleep. We tried not to panick and just get her to sleep as she was so exhuasted and in so much pain. Oh and we also gave her some Baby Tylenol....

She took a nap and we called the doctor on call (after calling my Mom, of course). We figured out that Eliana had grabbed the brake disc on the car parked next to ours. The disc must have been really hot and burned her hand as to get down to the beach there is a steep hill. Per doctor's advice, we took her into the ER after she woke up from her nap. Ballard Swedish is amazing, by the way. No wait and brand new facility. She had 5 nurses around her and was a trooper. They had to cut the dead skin away from her knuckles and clean it out - she didn't even cry! Then, we learned how to bandage her poor little hand. After that, we stopped and got her a Ladybug balloon on the way home.

The hardest thing was the next day, Nate had to leave for NYC and I was in charge of bandaging her hand for the week. I had to put antibacterial ointment on plus gauze, wrapping and tape and do it without her moving. Yeah, right! We did it, though and she even managed to go to 'school' that week and do just fine. What a brave little girl.

Still playing with her bum hand

Happy at the ER

Baker Lake

Finally, a weekend of sun! We made our way to Baker Lake (thanks to Nate taking the day off Friday) and had a wonderful weekend. Eliana had her first memorable boat ride and loved swimming at the beach. We think she said her first word, "boat" - what a fisherman's daughter! She kept pointing to the drift boat and yelling, "bow"; the 't' sound is still coming, but she kept saying it over and over when we were out on the lake seeing the boats with motors pass us by. We still love our oar-powered (aka Nate) boat and loved watching Eliana delight in the water surrounding her. Not to the mention that this lake reaches out and grabs Mt Baker to the northwest and the North Cascades to the North. It's a NW paradise.

Some other highlights were: Nate's crafty rig up of the booster seat to the drift boat seat (baby proof), Eliana's tantrum when we wouldn't let her drag around her only pair of pajamas, stained spaghetti mouth after dinner on the boat, Eliana wading up to her armpits on the swim beach (with Dad, of course!), waking up in our cots (yes, we've become soft in our parenting age) to see Eliana waving and smiling at us at 7:00 am (she even gave us a 30 minute snooze) and singing all the camp songs Nana taught us (Fire is Burning, Wondering, etc.)

Boil up some water and add some cold; baby camp bath!

A sleepy and worn out camper girl....and the one and only next to her snuggled up (Mr. Bear!)

Spaghetti dinner on the boat

After an attempt at a hike with sleepy Elle Belle, we discovered she pooped through her pants. With no other option, she got to ride in diaper only back to the camp site and proceeded to pat her belly...